‘Vigil’ by acclaimed author George Saunders kicks off the new Campus Reading Program
May 13, 2026
Cynthia Coburn, the Margaret Walker Alexander Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development and Social Policy at the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP), has received the 2026 Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence.
“Professor Coburn’s work helps teachers, school leaders, school district officials, and ultimately students, by enabling evidence-based decision-making about education.” Provost Kathleen Hagerty said. “This sort of solutions-oriented scholarship is how Northwestern makes an impact on society, and we are proud of her significant contributions.”
Coburn studies the relationship between instructional policy and teachers' classroom practices in urban schools, the dynamics of school district policy making, spread and scale of educational innovations, and the relationship between research and practice for school improvement.
Coburn was nominated for this year’s Walder Award by SESP Dean Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, who noted Coburn is “the foremost scholar of research design in education on the planet”, and “her work has fundamentally reshaped how researchers, practitioners, and policymakers think about educational reform.”
Coburn has won numerous awards for her scholarship, including the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, an honorary doctorate from CU Louvain in Belgium, Northwestern’s Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellowship and the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence.
She is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and an elected member of both the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The award, established in 2002 by Dr. Joseph Walder and conferred annually by the provost, recognizes excellence in research at Northwestern. Walder earned a doctorate and medical degrees from Northwestern.
